1. Technical Field
The present technology relates generally to user privacy in a network-based ecosystem and more specifically to client devices creating a firewall between a client device and an invitational content provider across which personal user data does not cross.
2. Introduction
Online commerce is quickly becoming a ubiquitous part of the modern economy and there are many options for finding and buying goods and services online. Along the lines of this growth have been increased concerns for privacy and online anonymity. Like the more traditional markets, the online retail market benefits greatly from invitational content. Moreover, a much greater benefit is derived in an invitational media campaign when invitational content can be targeted to certain users who are more likely to be interested in the invitational content. Therefore, it is beneficial to pass some information about users to an invitational content provider in order allow the invitational content provider to target users. “However, the practice of providing personal data that can serve to identify particular users apart from their simple demographic attributes are oftentimes socially, politically, and possibly legally unacceptable.”
Online retailers have provided demographic information to invitational content providers along with an identifier that linked the demographic information to a particular user. Also, the same identifier was used by third party developers to track the users of their software. Therefore, in a robust distribution system having many partners and having users who are very active in the ecosystem, the users' data was widely spread out through the whole system. In fact, as the amount of transactions grow, the amount of personal data that is associated with the identifier can also grow to a point where it is conceivable that the system could piece together the small amounts of personal data using the identifier and compile a relatively complete picture of who the user might be.
Accordingly, the present technology addresses the need to separate demographic information from an identifier and simply provide partners with segmented demographic information along with an anonymous identifier.